Tag Archives: Cortez v. Trans Union

In Cortez v. Trans Union LLC, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit decided a case at the intersection of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, better known as the USA PATRIOT Act (Patriot Act). Central to the case was a service offered by Trans Union through a third-party vendor called “OFAC Advisor.” OFAC Advisor was designed to generate an alert on a Trans Union credit report whenever an individual’s name was similar to a name on the Office of Foreign Asset Control’s (OFAC) “Specially Designated Nationals” (SDN) list. The SDN list is compiled by OFAC to identify individuals such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers with whom, under the Patriot Act and accompanying regulations, U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing.

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